The longest journey

This week's epic voyage to Baku is the longest ever made by AS Monaco in European competition. Added to Sunday's trip to Bordeaux, the Red & Whites will have travelled over 8000 km in five days!

If you wanted to travel from Monaco to Baku by road, you'd have to drive for 4,484 kilometres as pass through ten different countries (France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan). And it would take you about two and a half days...

That's why the AS Monaco squad will obviously be letting the plane take the strain, as they embark on the longest ever trip in the club's history in European competition. It's a 3491 kilometre flight between Monaco (Nice Airport) and Baku, taking between five and six hours depending on the flying conditions. So for the round trip to the Azerbaijani capital, the Red & Whites will be covering a total of 6982 kilometres. To give you an idea, that's the equivalent of flying from Nice to Paris seven times.

And no sooner will they have returned from that epic expedition, than the team will be heading off again to Bordeaux for their match against the Girondins at 21.00 on Sunday evening. With 647 km between the Principality and the capital of Gironde, a quick look at the calculator reveals that the Red & Whites are set to cover a massive 8278 km this week - that's one fifth of the circumference of the Earth!